While a musician in the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Band during World War I, Baisden composed several popular wartime songs, namely "Iowa, We Owe A Lot To You", "Meet Me At The Red Cross Ball", "I'll Steal You" and "Camp Cody Blues".

[2] The earliest extant published reference found of Baisden's vocation as a musician appears in the 1910 Minneapolis City Directory.

The show reportedly performed to capacity audiences in and around Minnesota, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.

[6] At some point, the band (and orchestra), conducted by John Valentine Eppel (1971–1931), was deployed to Camp Cody, New Mexico,[7] but, at some time around May 1918, was re-stationed at Fort Dodge.

On May 14, 1924, Charles Lick opened a newly constructed 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) ballroom on a beachfront ocean pier in the Venice neighborhood of Westside Los Angeles.